Years active 1966–present Spouse(s) David Mayer | Name Helena Solberg Role Screenwriter | |
 | ||
Full Name Helena Solberg-Ladd Born June 17, 1938 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Occupation Film director, screenwriter, filmmaker Nominations Grande Premio do Cinema Brasileiro for Best Documentary Film Movies Carmen Miranda: Bananas, Vida de Menina, Palavra (En)cantada, A Alma da Gente, Capitu Similar People Alice Dayrell Caldeira, Ludmila Dayer, Camilo Bevilaqua, Cynthia Adler, Erick Barreto | ||
Helena Solberg Interview las 460/560
Helena Solberg-Ladd (Rio de Janeiro, June 17, 1938) is a Brazilian-born documentarist who, since 1971, has made her career in the United States.
Contents
In 1983, she won a News & Documentary Emmy Award with From the Ashes: Nicaragua Today, documentary on a new society that born of political turmoil in Central America and the role that the U.S. plays in determining its future. Solberg is the only woman to participate in the "Cinema Novo" in Brazil.
Biography
Helena Solberg was born in Rio de Janeiro, daughter of Norwegian father and Brazilian mother, lived for a long time in New York City, has established itself as a producer and director of documentaries in Brazil and the United States. She began her career from contact with big names of the new movies, as Carlos Diegues and Arnaldo Jabor, a time when she lived with them during the studies at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. Solberg began in adolescence working as a reporter at the Metropolitano newspaper and by mastering English and French interviewed important names like the writer Clarice Lispector and also the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre.
Her debut as a filmmaker occurred in 1966 with the short film A Entrevista. In 1969 directed Meio-dia, a fiction about the revolt of students in the classroom, with the context the period of military dictatorship in Brazil, Caetano Veloso's music, É proibido proibir.
In the 70s, she took up residence in the United States for about 30 years, where she directed several productions, among them: From the Ashes: Nicaragua Today (1982), which won an News & Documentary Emmy Award. From the 80s, began to produce a series of documentaries for international TV channels such as HBO, PBS, Channel 4, Radio and Television of Portugal, National Geographic Channel, among others.
In 1995, she produced, wrote and directed her first feature film, Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business, a mixture of documentary and fictional recreation from the singer Carmen Miranda's life. With Bananas is my business she won the Best Films award of the audience, the critic and the jury at the Festival de Brasilia. The film also was awarded with the Golden Hugo for Best documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival and was selected among the 10 best in its category by the critic Andrew Sarris.
Her latest work and first fiction feature film is Vida de Menina, based on the book by Alice Dayrell Caldeira Brant, awarded with six prizes at the Gramado Film Festival 2004: Best Film, Screenplay, Photography, Soundtrack, Art Direction and Best Film by the audience.
She has two German grandchildren and a daughter who lives in the United States with the two kids.